Sunday, December 18, 2011

From TEPCO's press conference on December 18. Water with relatively high surface radiation was found where it was not supposed to be on December 18 between the process main building and the solid waste process building.

First it was announced that 125 tonnes of water was found, but it was soon corrected to 230 tonnes.

The surface radiation of the water "puddle" (as TEPCO calls it) is relatively high 3 millisieverts/hour.

It is actually a deep (50 centimeters) trench for electrical wires found filled with water. It is 4.5-meter wide, 50-meter long, with 3-meter deep pool at the end. Water is 50 centimeter deep.

Water is dripping from a duct (5-centimeter in diameter) for electrical wires inside the trench.

Why does TEPCO and the Japanese Gov't want to declare it's Fukushima disaster Stable and more importantly, what do they hope to accomplish by doing it now; Is it a trail balloon?

A. If the people "swallow" this Nuclear Baloney (NB) then TEPCO and their other Gov't Leaders get to keep their jobs and march onward toward a nuclear future while the Nuclear refugees are "encouraged" to return to their Fukushima homes; letting history be the judge of whether or not this was the RIGHT decision.

B. The people of Japan reject the concept of a "cold shut down" in which case TEPCO, in time, gets nationalized and Japan develops a 20 year plan to replace it's reactors with solar of all flavors!

C. The people of Japan are insulted by what TEPCO and their Gov't is saying and take to the streets to DEMAND immediate change. TEPCO and their Government overseers are both swept away in order to placate the people of Japan. The Nuclear Refugees get settlements and the area around Fukushima is closed to all but scientific personal for the foreseeable future. Japan's PM pledges to "race" Germany toward New Japanese developed Solar and being Nuclear within FIVE years...

The Japanese people are now at a cross roads that will define both their future,their children's future and possibly the future of Nuclear Power on Earth!

What will they now do:...Bow to TEPCO?... Accept their Leaders vow to do better?...Or Demand much less Nuclear ASAP?

This is a decision that only the Japanese People can make;... I hope they make US proud of them!

Of the physicsforums thread you mention the by far most important post is imho this one:http://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=3352084&postcount=12

Be sure to read all the pages the author links to.The author is a retired reactor engineer, but he is (imho) honest and looks for the truth.

He explains in detail and well-written what probably happened (criticality excursion, explosion with blackened steam/smoke), and _why_ it happened.He shows in his photo and video analysis what Tepco apparently tried to hide.

Remember, Tepco showed practically no detailed video/pics of reactor 3. Only very short low-res flyovers and photos from big distance and angles that obscure the really interesting parts.

Please read the post and the links the author (jim hardy aka Analog) provides.He actually proves what Hatoyama said about the nuclear explosion.

"The author is a retired reactor engineer, but he is (imho) honest and looks for the truth. "

Are you kidding? That guy keeps blowing wind up his own ass to stay afloat. He can't even admit such an accident is possible in the US. That's honesty and truth??? "We have to learn from our mistakes", he says. Yeah, whatever, the nuke industry is going to learn from their mistakes. They are working hard to upgrade plants all over the US at this time! NOT! Fucking deluded prick. TEPCO must have had lots of this kind superior thinking employee under their pathological management. For shame.

I am not so sure about your verdict. It's "natural" for the pro-nuclear to be over-confident in the safety of their plants and being inconsequent regarding safety and the reality. They all have their individual thinking taboos, no matter what nationality.

Apropos "learning from mistakes" in the USA:The Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama went out of control in 1973 because of a cable channel fire. "Learning" would mean to exchange the highly-flammable channel insulation foam material that fed the blaze.Practically nothing has been done about this.

Still a large number of reactors in the USA use this highly-flammable material even if there are alternatives. But, exchanging the insulation would cost the operators money, and this is apparently a no-no for the NRC. The only thing that was changed was that now they use smoke generators instead of candles to find air leaks in the cable channels.This obviously doesn't help if a cable catches fire.

This kind of is their "hard work to upgrade their plants" to avoid dangers that have been well-known for decades...

And the many cases of reactor operators caught watching TV, playing computer games, reading books, or even sleeping, or having a booze at work when an unannounced inspection occurred, clearly shows that the situation in the USA is probably not much better than in Japan.

It's "natural" for the pro-nuclear to be over-confident in the safety of their plants and being inconsequent regarding safety and the reality. They all have their individual thinking taboos, no matter what nationality.

Hi Atom, yes you are right about pro-nuke individual's thinking taboos but with the daily mounting of evidence showing the nuke industry's obfuscation, greed and slackness the person we are talking about should have come around by now--any average thinking person would. Instead there is still arrogance and willful contrariness. You could almost say he is the embodiment of the nuke industry.

Anyway, many posters have left the Physics Forums' nuke engineering forum in disgust. What is it now, 700 or so pages of immortalized calculations based on erroneous and nonsensical data coming out of TEPCO, with most posts insinuating TEPCO is lying and obfuscating, of course, deleted by moderators. Yeah, okay, and now someone not long ago asks why more people aren't posting.

'And the many cases of reactor operators caught watching TV, playing computer games, reading books, or even sleeping, or having a booze at work when an unannounced inspection occurred.."

@ anon 1:58There are worse guys on this physics forum.I stopped posting there as nuclear-critical thoughts aren't wanted there, and because of their thinking taboos.When I looked back on the forum on the weekend, I was surprised how many people got banned that were too openly nuclear-critical, even if their posts were on-topic and founded with sources.They are just like a sect.

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

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Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

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